


If the Potters Knew

by Cornholio4



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: AU, Drabble, Not for Snape fans, Oneshot, Potters survived, Severus Snape Bashing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:06:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29021691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cornholio4/pseuds/Cornholio4
Summary: Lily and James survived that Halloween night and overheard a conversation between Dumbledore and Snape. What would have happened if they knew who gave the prophecy to Voldemort?Seriously not for those who like Snape.Oneshot Drabble.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Potter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 43





	If the Potters Knew

The whole of Wizarding Britain was celebrating the defeat of the dark Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters were being rounded up, most of those celebrating were being quite careless and obliviators were hard at work covering up for the most careless ones. Lily and James Potter had survived the dreaded dark lord breaking into their home and attempting to kill their infant child Harry. They along with Harry miraculously survived thanks to ancient magic fuelled by Lily's sacrifice wanting to die instead of their son.

They took some time to recover and James had relayed to his superiors about Sirius Black being a decoy and how Peter Pettigrew had been the real secret keeper. Once given knowledge of his animagus form Pettigrew had been captured and contained with extra measures to make sure that he couldn't attempt to transform and escape.

Days had passed and Sirius and Remus were looking after Harry while they had to go meet with Dumbledore at the Order of the Phoenix's headquarters for a meeting. They were both in a sour mood as despite best efforts, it seemed that inner circle Death Eaters were using their wealth and influence to plead that they were held under the Imperius Curse to join, James had swore that the next time they were caught with something then he would do everything he could to make sure that they don't escape justice that time.

They were by a door and overheard Dumbledore talking to Lily's former best friend Severus Snape and froze when they overheard something, that Snape should be happy that Lily survived despite the prophecy being given to Voldemort and his earliest actions. They were thinking the implications and paled, they knew that Snape was working as an apparent spy for Dumbledore in the Death Eaters ranks with Sirius and James being especially not being happy with working with him but were doing their best to try to be civil with him despite Snape's remarks.

Then came Dumbledore's statement that he heard from them that Voldemort was going to spare Lily like Snape had asked them to, that had been the last straw. They slammed open the door taking them by surprise. "Professor, was Snivellus the Death Eater who told the prophecy to Voldemort?" James asked at once with a glare to Snape's direction, while he had grown up since his Hogwarts days (bits of carelessness like the encounter with the muggle police and James and Sirius with their motorcycles notwithstanding) he couldn't help but indulge in pettiness due to the circumstances.

Snape was starting to tell of James for intruding on matters that he shouldn't be but Lily snapped at him to shut up and let Dumbledore answer her husband's question. Lily's glare to him was just as if not more fierce than James'.

Dumbledore nodded and in the ensuing argument trying to calm them down and explain the situation. That Snape went to Dumbledore with what he had done to try and save them did nothing to dissuade their anger or the fact that he wanted to let Snape off. "Oh, we should be grateful for him trying to save us when he was the one who put our lives in danger in the first place?" James asked sarcastically as Snape glared at him.

"After what you and your friends did to me in Hogwarts, do you really expect me to be concerned with your saftey Potter..." Snape snidely replied but that set Lily off.

"Don't you dare attempt to play the moral high ground you self righteous monster! While James and his friends went too far at times, don't pretend you were ever a helpless victim! I am not happy with what James and his friends pulled but it was nothing what you and your own future Death Eater friends were doing to muggleborns on a daily basis! I never forgot you trying to excuse Mary Macdonald and while James was an obnoxious prat, he grew up and I don't regret marrying him one bit! He grew up while it seemed that you never did! You endangered not only his life but the life of our son who would I die for without a moment's hesitation! Were you planning on taking advantage of my grief to get me for myself! If you didn't kill our friendship with the Mudblood comment in Hogwarts then you have certainly killed it now!" Lily thundered at Snape not recognising him at all from the boy that had been her childhood friend that had introduced her to the Wizarding World.

"If you value Snape's life then keep him far away from our family as possible because I doubt that we will try and control ourselves. We will tell Sirius and Remus and be warned, if anyone asks about Snape or if we get called into a trial for him, we won't be less than honest about who set Voldemort after us." James told Dumbledore as they then left with Snape calling for Lily to stay so that he could explain himself.

Lily only reacted by sending a middle finger to his direction as she slammed the door shut, James noticed this and sly joked about how mature that was. Lily remarked at him to shut up as she nonetheless appreciated the attempt to lighten the mood between them.

Lily and James had told Sirius and Remus about what happened and they were not happy to learn about it at all, James having to spent twenty minutes calming Sirius down and stopping him from trying to go and murder Snape himself. Over the years they kept up their word and told Dumbledore any meetings with him would need to have Snape far away from them. James was hard at work as an Auror, eager to take down sightings of Death Eater remnants and investigating cases against supposed reformed Death Eaters which led him to becoming deputy head of the DMLE behind Amelia Bones.

They talked to Professors McGonagall and Flitwick and they had learned that since becoming potions master and head of Slytherin at Hogwarts, there had been complaints about him favouriting his house students as well as being extremely harsh (as politely as Lily and James could actually call it) to other students especially Gryffindors. That only showed to them that Snape had not grown up at all and was taking his anger over what had happened in his life on students who had done nothing to deserve it. James realised that he wouldn't put it past Snape to make Harry's time in Hogwarts a living hell for the mere crime of being his son and went to talk to Lily about sending Harry to somewhere else.

He had found her looking through brochures for other Magic schools, having had the same thought. They turned down multiple requests of them taking up the Defense against the Dark Arts professor with them always saying that he had to fire Snape before they would even consider it. Then came them sending the rejection letter to Dumbledore saying that they were enrolling him somewhere else since they don't trust Snape with teaching their son at all.

Dumbledore managed to convince them to come to a meeting with Hagrid and the heads of houses sans Snape, they rebuked every attempt to assure them that Snape's conduct was not as bad as they thought and McGonagall asked them to put their personal feelings about him aside. Lily sick of it blurted out "I will not trust the man that put my son in danger in the first place!"

This stunned them and Dumbledore was in worry, Lily was in surprise at what she just said but the Potters elaborated that it was because of Snape that Voldemort came after them in the first place and how he just wanted Lily spared, not caring what happened to her husband or son.

This shocked them and not even Hagrid could stick up for Dumbledore defending Snape after hearing that. The meeting ended not long after.

They got word from Remus who had taken up the DADA teaching position during the next year and how that now the other teachers lost all patience from Snape. McGonagall as deputy headmistress kept going over point losses and detentions that Snape made and reversing them. She would override him in the middle of punishing students in the halls especially if he was punishing Gryffindors for incidents started by Slytherins and letting the offenders off without even a telling off. She would harshly punish those responsible and shout at Snape making him apologise for petty and unprofessional name calling the students.

Complaining to Dumbledore did nothing for Snape as the teachers said that Snape had been coddled for too long. Snape knew that complaining to the Board of Governors would do nothing but see him dismissed as his record would be used against him.

Snape had learned of the school that Harry was being sent to and arranged for his Death Eater friends that had escaped justice to be at the train platform where parents would be picking up their children for the end of the school year. In masks they would attack and Snape would get the Potters to saftey. He would spin a story about learning of the attack too late and only joined in to try and get people to saftey.

He would make himself seem like a changed hand and though being forced to save Potter and his spawn would be terrible, it would be worth it for the media to be calling him a hero that saved the children and the Boy-Who-Lived and use the reputation to force the staff to get off his back.

However it went horribly wrong for him and his cohorts as it seemed that the school had children of highly trained Aurors who were ready at a moment's notice when the attack started, especially James who had trained for any sneak attacks. They were subdued as there weren't many of them as they wanted to use fear and panic to their advantage. The Aurors got parents and their children to saftey as Snape panicked and was about to try and salvage this when a spell hit his hand and destroyed his wand.

He was angry to see James glaring at him having fired off the spell and Snape was helpless when he was being arrested and unmasked. He was visited in custody by an unamused Dumbledore who told him that the staff and Board of Governors would not let him even try to keep him off staff if he did got off. The newspapers vilified him as the fellow Death Eaters pointed to him as the one who masterminded the attack.

At Snape's trial the Potters testified about how for the past decade Snape was persona non grata to them and they talked about how Snape was the one that sent Voldemort on his way to them wanting to spare only Lily. This sealed Snape's fate as he sentenced to life in prison and Dumbledore was not safe from criticism for his defences for the man.

Harry graduated his school with top marks never knowing about his mother's former friend that almost got his family killed, having a graduation photo with his friends, his godfather Sirius, family friend Remus, respected inventor of potions mother lily and Minister for Magic father James. All he knew was that the mastermind of the attack when he went to his family after his first school year was someone who had killed his mother's childhood friend. true from a certain point of view as said by a series of Muggle movies..

As for Lord Voldemort, his shadow self was found by Death Eater inner circle members being led by Lucius Malfoy and supporters and sympathisers in the Ministry. They were caught in a kidnapping attempt on Harry for a ritual to bring Voldemort back to life. They were sent to Azkaban and Voldemort's shadow self was sent through the Veil. When that happened Harry got a funny feeling on his scar but went away and never bothered him again.

**Author's Note:**

> I once wrote a similar oneshot but I deleted it thanks to criticism and using some ideas from my Downfall of Snape story. I added the bit about what happened to Voldemort due to previous comments I had gotten pointing out that Voldemort could have set him free from Azkaban and some who may try to claim that Snape was essential to Voldemort being permanently defeated.


End file.
